On certain aircraft, in particular certain military aircraft, specific crew members are in charge of the operations linked to the management of the cargo (loading and unloading of equipment on the ground, in-flight dropping of paratroopers or equipment, emergency medical evacuation and similar mission). These crew members, also called loadmasters in English terminology, are located in the cargo zone of the aircraft and have specific equipment items and interfaces allowing management of the cargo.
In particular, by analogy with the piloting operations incumbent upon the crew members present in the cockpit, the crew members working in the cargo zone of the aircraft may be warned of failures affecting a system having an impact on the operations for management of the cargo.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an alarm device making it possible to manage warnings linked to the piloting and cargo operations.
The device illustrated comprises a first system 100-1 for management of alarms comprising an interface for presentation of warnings linked to the piloting operations and a second system 100-2 for management of alarms comprising an interface for presentation of warnings linked to the cargo operations of an aircraft.
More precisely, first system 100-1 comprises one or more computers 105-1 for calculating and confirming warnings from information items originating from systems 110-1 to 110-m of the aircraft. The warnings calculated and confirmed may be displayed on one or more screens 115-1 and/or presented acoustically via one or more loudspeakers 120-1 to be indicated to the crew members in the cockpit.
Similarly, second system 100-2 comprises one or more computers 105-2 for calculating and confirming warnings from information items originating from systems 125-1 to 125-n of the aircraft. The warnings calculated and confirmed may be displayed on one or more screens 115-2 and/or presented acoustically via one or more loudspeakers 120-2 to be indicated to the loadmasters.
However, since certain failures may have impacts on the cockpit operations as well as on the cargo operations, a need arises for synchronization of tasks and communication between cockpit and cargo crew members. In particular for failures in common, that is to say failures having impacts on the cockpit and cargo operations, it is necessary to ensure a simultaneity of warning of the crew members in both zones of the aircraft. It is seen here that in the case of lack of synchronization in warning the crew members, risks of disturbing the pilots with actions of the loadmaster, who for example might be the only one to be warned with a failure on his own interface, could generate unacceptable extra work on the cockpit side in certain critical flight phases (for example on take-off or landing).
The proposed architectures on certain military aircraft do not make it possible to meet this need. In fact, for certain failures in common, that is to say failures having an effect on the cockpit and cargo operations, each interface relies on its own channel for detection of failures and on logics for detection and presentation of alarms developed independently and with very different levels of complexity. This results directly in risks of inconsistencies in presentation of the warning messages presented on each interface.
Furthermore, it is difficult to guarantee that the wording of alarms displayed on the cockpit interface and on the cargo interface will be consistent, which may mean a risk of misunderstanding by the crews.